KARACHI: After a positive finish on Thursday, the KSE-100 turned bearish once again, falling 261 points as political and economic uncertainty took toll on investor sentiment.

The KSE-100 opened on a positive note, with the index crossing the 44,000 mark, as investors resumed buying. However, the momentum could not be sustained and the index fell to hit a low of 43,550.68.

At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 260.99 points or 0.60% to settle at 43,594.79.

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said the KSE-100 index gained to make an intraday high of 172 points during the initial hours of the day.

“However, on account of political noise and foreign selling, the index plummeted to close 261 points below Thursday’s closing, at 43,595 level. Market also witnessed sluggish volumes in Friday’s trading session,” said Mulla.

“Major laggards were HUBC (-2.34%), SNGP (-3.96%), and LUCK (-1.02%) as they wiped away 74 points from the index. On the flipside, HBL (+0.70%), SSGC (+4.17%) and UBL (+0.44%) cumulatively contributed 35 points to the index.

“On the economic front, trade deficit in April-2018 was down 3% year-on-year. On sector-wise front, cement sector came under pressure where CHCC (-1.08%), FCCL (-1.10%), LUCK (-1.02%) and DGKC (-0.80%) lost value to close in the red zone.

“Moving forward, we expect the market to exhibit volatility in the coming sessions due to overall political ambiguities and lack of positive triggers in the market,” Mulla added.

Overall, shares of 371 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 91 stocks closed higher, 255 declined while 25 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.1 billion.

Dewan Cement was the volume leader with 13.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.17 to close at Rs19.67. It was followed by First Dawood Investment with 12.8 million shares, losing Rs0.99 to close at Rs4.02 and Sui South Gas with 11.8 million shares, gaining Rs1.47 to close at Rs36.69.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs205.6 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.